Is Losing Weight With Diet Alone Enough to Succeed?

Photo by Diana_Pole

If a Martian walked through the door right now wanting to know about life on Earth, I’d struggle explaining two things:

1. I’m a bit shaky on how Noah managed to create the refrigeration system to keep polar bears cold and the lions hot in his ark (any chance it’s all bullcrap?).
2. Also, I’d need at least two hours to explain why U.S. customary system is so freakn’ stupid (admit it) — there are different arbitrary units for everything.

But I’d explain what’s better for fat loss — diet alone or diet + exercise-with ease. Here’s how I’d explain it to a Martian:

Image Credit: absscience.com

You can create this deficit via diet alone, exercise alone, or a combination of both:

Image Credit: absscience.com

Now, a calorie deficit via exercise versus a calorie deficit through diet yields the same loss (given equal net energy balance). This has been demonstrated in research. So a 3500-calorie deficit via exercise or diet will result in the same weight loss.